Alumni Spotlight: Julia & Rachel Fischer

In celebration of our 25th anniversary of Ambleside School, each month we’ll be featuring a short spotlight article about graduates of our school and what they’re doing now.

Julia and Rachel Fischer describe their family as close. They took road trips, went on hikes, and even shared a passion for active involvement in their communities. But their family isn’t the only place they found closeness — they also found it within the Ambleside community.

The sisters attended the Dranesville campus in Herndon, Virginia — Julia from 6th–8th grade and Rachel from 4th–8th grade. It was here they found their passions and purposes as well as friendships that have endured into their adulthood.

Though they spent plenty of time on their academics, it was the warmth of a tight-knit community that made Julia and Rachel’s experience so special. This led to true learning and plenty of years-long inside jokes. Julia shares, “There was an invaluable sense of community where I truly felt as though every person wanted me to grow into the best person I could be.”

That community could be found in their teachers — each of them uniquely impacting the Fischer sisters’ lives with lessons that have carried through high school and college. And it was made complete in the classmates they call friends even to this day. “The community Ambleside cultivates is truly a gift,” says Rachel.

Beyond that they also found a deep love for the natural world.

As children there was nothing the Fischer sisters enjoyed more than catching salamanders in the creek or playing in the backyard. These passions converged for them in Nature Study, where they both fondly remember exploring the woods around Ambleside, eagerly looking for specimens to paint in their journals until they were filled with watercolor images of leaves, insects, and pressed flowers. Julia shares, “When I spot a pokeberry bush or Queen Anne’s lace today, I still remember drawing them in my nature journal, jotting down scientific facts, and in the case of the pokeberry, testing out the crushed berries as paint.”

That interest in nature has only continued to bloom in their lives. “To this day, Nature Study is something I have carried with me. Going on walks and painting what I see is one of my favorite hobbies,” says Rachel.

For them, there was a simple peace that came from designated time to think about God’s creation and capture it on paper.

Julia’s Unique Experience

One of the most challenging assignments during Julia’s Ambleside time was to write her own version of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” She had to write dozens of stanzas in the exact meter and rhyme as the poem. And though that was difficult, for her it was also fun and rewarding, especially as she got to hear everyone’s creations read aloud in class.

This kind of curiosity was nurtured for her in every subject and, as much as narration was always a challenge, the practical skills from it and her other classes served Julia well through her high school and college years. The cultivated love for learning drove her academic choices in her undergrad at University of Pennsylvania where she worked for several publications, considering herself a student journalist, and double majored in Political Science and Hispanic Studies. She was recently accepted to Harvard and will start the law program there in 2026.

Rachel’s Personal Story

One memory that especially stands out for Rachel was her 6th grade field trip to Jamestown and the excitement of seeing something from history in real life. She remembers a packed day visiting museums and exploring the land. And though the bus ride home turned into a much longer trip than anticipated, she joyfully remembers laughter and games with her classmates on the bus filling up that extra time.

“I think that one fundamental aspect of my Ambleside education that I especially value is that it allowed me to grow as a whole person.” Rachel was challenged to be a resourceful problem solver, a critical thinker, and a creative artist. She graduated Ambleside as a well-rounded student and felt prepared for what lay ahead.

Today, she is a double major at the University of Pennsylvania (where her sister also attends) studying Chemistry and Hispanic Studies. She is excited about STEM and has just taken on a new research project. She is currently involved in a variety of clubs on campus and will be doing research for Penn Medicine and Wharton this semester.

While their academic and personal interests have taken them in different directions, the Fischer sisters' stories are both at heart molded by their Ambleside education. Ambleside is where they grew in knowledge and character and learned to appreciate community. Both Julia and Rachel are grateful for the teachers, classmates, and experiences that shaped their journeys.

Their stories, emblematic of the Ambleside ethos, remind us that education is most powerful when it nurtures the whole person, preparing students not just for the challenges of academia but for the broader journey of life itself.